Matt spent summers on his father’s farm in Southeastern Idaho. His family used their horses for working cattle, hunting and roping. “The horsemanship I grew up with was the old Western mentality of the John Wayne movies, where if a horse was giving you trouble, you bit his ear, hopped on him and hoped for the best,” Matt says.

That was all fine until Scarface, a rank gelding that was purchased for use on the farm, came along. In short order, Scarface destroyed a trailer and injured Matt’s older siblings. Their father wanted to get rid of the gelding, but Matt convinced him to let him have a go with training Scarface.

“The old-school style of training just didn’t work with him. He was super sensitive and hot and came with really bad habits,” Matt says. “So I got on YouTube and started researching training approaches. While I was watching other trainers’ videos, Clinton’s content kept coming up.”

Matt watched a few of the videos and liked Clinton’s approach. At the time, Clinton happened to be doing a tour in Utah, just a few hours’ drive away from Matt. “I got there during the trailer-loading demonstration and watched as a big, 17-hand horse drug its poor owner across the arena,” Matt says.

He watched Clinton use the Method at the tour and it really gave him hope that Scarface might have a chance after all. “Clinton had this pushy, disrespectful horse in the trailer in less than 30 minutes. It was neat to see his method in real time and how quickly it worked,” Matt says.

Matt bought the Fundamentals Kit and worked diligently with Scarface. Soon, he had a connection with the gelding and was making real progress. “I started taking him to ropings and on cattle drives and people didn’t believe he was the same horse. I still own him and use him for everything, including babysitting my kids. He’s just phenomenal,” Matt says. “The hardest part of applying the Method was focusing on myself and realizing that I was the problem. It wasn’t that the horse was dumb or that he was ‘a bad-minded horse,’ I just didn’t know what to do and when I needed to do it. The Method taught me how!”

Matt enjoyed the training process so much that he began working with more horses. Eventually, he launched Loertscher Horsemanship and attended the Academy to further his career. “There’s nothing more rewarding than helping people with their horses,” Matt says. “When someone is frustrated or terrified and you can show them how to solve their issue and continue to build a partnership with their horse, it’s just the best.”